Senator Schumer Calls for Pollard Release

New York Post - September 9, 1999

Pollard Is Hillary's Next Hornet's Nest

By Deborah Orin

HILLARY Clinton's FALN headache is about to get worse -
because Sen. Chuck Schumer has come out for clemency for convicted
Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

Schumer joins Mayor Giuliani - Mrs. Clinton's likely
Senate foe - who has called for clemency for Pollard, thus putting new
pressure on Mrs. Clinton on an issue dear to many Jewish voters.

"After years of studying the issue, Sen. Schumer believes
Jonathan Pollard meets [the] criteria," his office said in a statement
yesterday when The Post asked where he stands.

The statement said Schumer supports clemency only if three
conditions are met: "no danger is posed to society, real contrition is
shown and the sentence is disproportionate to others who have committed
similar crimes." He believes Pollard fits that bill.

Pollard's advocates argue that since FALN got clemency, he
should too, because he has done more than 13 years in jail for spying
for a friendly country - and was never linked to a terror
bombing group.

Pollard advocates began calling on Mrs. Clinton to push
her husband to free him while she was still backing her husband's offer
to free the FALNers - before belatedly flip-flopping when the deal came
under fire.

The first lady is waffling on Pollard, taking - as she put
it yesterday - a "wait and see" stand.

Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan, the man whose seat Mrs. Clinton
wants, opposes clemency for Pollard and says he should apply for parole
rather than seek special political treatment.*(N.B. This is absurd. See
Why No Parole Possible.)

Moynihan also opposed Clinton's FALN clemency from the
start - so the first lady can't argue that she stands with Moynihan on
the issue because she initially backed her husband's FALN deal.

Schumer also has called on Clinton to release the documents behind his FALN decision, saying otherwise it's impossible to
tell if clemency was justified. Aides say there's considerable public
information on Pollard so Schumer feels comfortable taking a position.

The demand for the FALN files is bound to get more intense
with The Post's revelation today that John Cardinal O'Connor - cited by
the White House as advocating FALN clemency - says he never backed the
idea...

***

A Washington wag wonders: If Mrs. Clinton can't even get
her husband to listen to her on the FALN, how would she do as a
freshman Democratic senator lobbying George W. Bush?

And the FALN could be a 2000 issue because Clinton's
clemency grant explicitly says that it "may be voided" and the FALN
members re-jailed if "a future president" - say, Bush - deems they
violated their parole.

***

The FALN flap also looms as a new test of how far Dems are
ready to go to defend the Clintons as House Republicans push for a
speedy vote on a resolution denouncing FALN clemency.

The only FALN defenders are a handful of the most liberal
Democrats in Congress while key Dems such as Moynihan, Sens. Pat Leahy
of Vermont and Joe Biden of Delaware line up against it.

Any test vote risks leaving Clinton isolated on the left
edge - there aren't a lot of Dems who want to seek re-election in 2000
on a platform of FALN clemency. And as polls show growing "Clinton
Fatigue," some Dems may be glad to find an excuse to break with him.

If Dems desert Clinton, that could also force Veep Al Gore
- who so far is waffling on his boss' FALN deal - to take a stand. Or
pay a price for refusing to join Dem rival Bill Bradley in blasting the
deal.